Policies

Monday, June 02, 2008

Style Icons and Creativity

This past weekend was good. It started for me on Friday afternoon. Brit Boy only worked half a day, so we had a “date” and went to the movies that afternoon. We went to see the new Sex and the City movie. I had told him that I was fine with going to see it alone if he didn’t want to go. And it wasn’t a case of me dragging him to see it, he was glad to go and see it with me, because many times when I am watching reruns of the show, he is there laughing with me. So he was interested to see how the movie would be. So off we went. I was expecting it to be me and my Brit Boy and all women, but actually there were two guys in there other than Brit Boy. I only say all of this about the male and female thing because I read and heard so much about this “just” being a “chick flick”, which so annoys me. Why is it that a movie with women in the lead roles always has to be marginalized? Anyway,enough politics. (smile) The fashions were great and it was a nice escape. Brit Boy and I both enjoyed it and the popcorn was good too. (smile)

On Saturday, I went to have acupuncture. I haven’t gone in a few weeks since I have been feeling fine and also I have to be frugal. Karen and Ta were there as usual and they were in good spirits. I asked Karen if everyone in her family was fine back in China since the catastrophic earthquake there. I hadn’t seen these ladies since it happened. Karen assured me that all was fine with her family and Ta’s. I was so glad to hear that. As a human being, the suffering there is so hard to watch, and on a personal note, I am just glad to know that Karen and Ta's families are okay.

Sunday was a quiet day for us. Brit Boy studied and I read and did some other things around the house.

When I woke up this morning, I heard the news about the death of the designer Yves Saint Laurent. It was sad news. In my teens and 20s, I was very much into fashion and had aspirations to be a designer myself or at least work in the fashion industry. I loved sketching designs and sewing and dreaming of a creative life. When I graduated from high school, I got accepted to study at an art school that was based in the US and then gave the option of studying in London for a time. But I didn’t attend and went ahead to regular college. I was talked out of going to art school by a well-meaning relation who thought that perhaps something more traditional was better to study and being so young, I took their advice. Incidentally, it wasn’t my mother. (smile) But it is all water under the bridge now and that was a long time ago. It is now just a footnote for me and I have moved on and discovered other loves now and I am happy with my choices. (smile) From time to time though, when things from the fashion world come across my attention, I always have a millisecond of thinking “what if?”. I used to have dreams of having a creative career and creating beauty in the world and getting to travel. Well, the reason that I don’t mourn the “what ifs” anymore is because I figure that I am still alive and there is plenty that I can do to be creative in my life and do good things in the world. I do creative work now, so that is a big part of what I wanted all along. I do what I can to bring creativity to my writing, gardening, painting, cooking and other things, and it is hilarious to me that I was going to come to London to study so many years ago, and now I live only a train’s ride away. So I got there in the end. (laugh) I have also traveled in my life, and I plan to do much more, so that dream has come true too. (smile) As I said, I am still here, so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Yves Saint Laurent was one of my favourite designers when I was growing up. I loved the elegance of his work. And I have heard on the news reports today that he was one of the first designers to use black models on the runway and I said bravo to that. You’ve gotta love a person who makes their own rules and in doing so, does the right thing. (smile) I applaud the work he did and I simply say...well done and rest in peace.